Sharp Edge Beer Emporium

I don’t believe that I haven’t written a review for this place yet, seeing as though I live so close and I’m here pretty often. So if I’ve already reviewed it please excuse this one…
It’s a pretty big restaurant but I usually sit at the bar so I can watch whatever game is on. Seating is comfortable, employees are always nice and conversational. The crowd kind of depends on the time of day, and maybe what big sports game is on as well. But it’s never so busy that you can’t be seated pretty easily.
I almost always order wings and Belgian Frites from here. They have a decent variety of sauces, but my mainstay is the hot wings. I’ve had maybe a couple instances where my wings were a bit over cooked but that’s rare, fortunately. Beer selection is amazing and there’s probably no point in mentioning that. Everyone already knows!
Some things are pricey if you’re not ordering from the late night menu or during happy hour. But I’m happy that I’m close enough to be a regular here.

Everyone has always been nice. The food is bar food nothing authentic. The beer is pricey but the service had been awesome I have been coming here since before the remodel. This tells you it’s the place to be. It’s just a nice around the corner spot. You can go and get good drinks, food and maybe even new conversation. I love this place. It’s not open too late and attracts a very nice diverse crowd.

Every time we go it takes at least 15 minutes to be greeted by a waitstaff person. I won’t be going back a fourth time. Horrible service and the waitstaff just don’t care. Cheese wedges not even hot and fries served cold. Nothing about this place impresses me.

always fantastic beer and great food, consistently a good time and well-​worth stopping in no matter what day of week, great bar to cozy up to and friendly bar staff!

This place is total shit. Beer menu is overpriced af and they didn’t even have any interesting or high quality beers. I went for their thursday special «all you can eat wings» but it was far from all I could eat because it takes literally 30 minutes to bring out 6 wings at a time (I timed it). So if you have anything else to do during your night then be prepared to eat around 12 – 18 wings. Oh and their menu lists them as jumbo wings but they are actually just half wings, not sure how they get away with that. The place was busy during happy hour but the exact moment that happy hour ended it was dead because everything is so overpriced. Even when it was completely dead they still stalled my wing orders in 30 minute intervals. On top of that the wings sucked. The dry rub cajun had approximately one spec of pepper per wing and the «hot» sauce was more of a chipotle zest than a hot sauce you would order at any other restaurant in the city. The wings were so dry it felt like they were sucking the moisture out of my body. I am appalled, disgusted and feeling cheated out of my money and time. I refuse to even be in range of vision of this establishment of crooks again in my life.

Like other reviewers, I like this place but there’s some glaring drawbacks that make it hard to recommend beyond 3 stars.
The good: beer selection, happy hours and specials. Half off any craft or Belgian drafts during happy hour is a great deal. If you’re at the bar, they’re great about letting you sample different varieties. Their bites are really good and we like that they have a tofu option at no upcharge. That said, it’s a bit pricy but that’s why you should go during Steeler games… all you came eat for $ 10. Usually a quieter more relaxed tone, which is a nice alternative to similar happy hours at places on Highland and Ellsworth.
The not so good: the burgers and other items on the menu are just «meh». They’re good, not great and I’m never really excited by what I see. I wish they had more veg appetizers/​starters/​finger foods to share. As well, service can be slow if you’re not at the bar regardless of how many people are there. I honestly think it’s the wait staff as the bartenders are pretty quick with drinks and food.

The chicken bites were really small and cold :(but the beer selection was on point. The menu looked good and I was digging the vibe, need to go back to really see if it’s worth the hefty price tag.

Absolutely, by far, the best beer emporium in the city of Pittsburgh. It’s a world class establishment! Over 70 beers on tap, with a great selection of Belgians. I had a beer tasting here for myself and several close friends and the management facilitated everything (thanks Melody and Michael)! They supplied the Utopias, I supplied the drinkers. The staff is very knowledgeable, especially Melody, Cindy and Jenni!

Arrived for a party of 7 adults and 2 children at 1:20. At 2:26 the waitress told us one member of a party could not have a Belgium Burger, because there were only 3 burgers and 2 were unthawed and the other one was frozen, which would take longer. So they haven’t even started cooking our meals, yet? One member of the group changed their order to accommodate the long wait.
The drinks were good but pricey and also took forever to arrive. The restaurant was not busy, so I’m not sure what the issue was.
When the food did finally arrive… One person sent theirs back and refused to eat. Two others were very hungry at this point so they ate half and hid the rest under the napkin.
If the service was awful, the food could have made up for it. When the checks came out they were wrong, but we were eager to leave.
Tip for owners and management. We weren’t shy about our experience to the staff and no one from management ever came to speak to us. No discount was given or apology.
Pretty crappy experience.

First started going to this place in ’99 (when the pool tables were in the back and they didn’t card very much!). I’d have to say that things have gone down hill since then (post remodel) and I don’t frequent as often as I used to even though I live right down the street. A visit last night only solidified my opinion that the good days at The Sharp Edge are over.
I haven’t been for about a year, but thought I’d give it another shot. New menu doesn’t list as much info about the beers as it once had and ok longer lists prices for pints. Seems they don’t serve pints any more, but ‘mason jars’ that are merely 12 oz. glasses. Service while sitting at the bar was slow, even though it was not busy and there were 2 bar tenders. It actually became a running joke between myself and two guys seated next to me. Ordered a burger but decided to get it to go after becoming disenchanted. I had requested the pomme frites (up-​charge from basic french fries. Just serve pomme frites) but discovered I got normal fries when I got home, but was still up-​charged.
Over priced for at best average food, poor service and 12 oz drafts. Not going back.

Roughly 15 years ago, the Sharp Edge was AMAZING. Five-​stars. No question.
Imagine…you’re a poor college student looking for a cheap place to hang out with friends. Enter the Sharp Edge. It’s in an edgy (pun intended) part of town, so you feel cool. The décor is … basic. But oh, wow, there are a million beers, and the staff makes sure that you are served each beer in a correctly shaped receptacle, whether it be standard beer glass, goblet, etc. Cool! And the pizza is kind-​of-​crappy, but it’s cheap, and it fits! Yay! You and your friends are happy and you still have money for another outing.
Fast forward to modern times… I walk into the Sharp Edge with my party, and it’s no longer a dive anymore, and it looks kind of reputable. I’m confused. I look to my right, and to my horror, I see that there is a FAMILY with CHILDREN. Nooooooo… that’s not just not right. And we all order the kind-​of-​crappy pizza, except that it now costs twice as much as it did back in the day, way more than for which mere inflation would account.
I suppose this place appeals to a certain profitable demographic. It’s not me. And I’ve discovered that there are suburban Sharp Edge franchises that bear no resemblance to the original bar.
I don’t have any recommendations on how to fix this place. I’m just sad. Good-​bye Sharp Edge.

Review is for bar only, not the food. The bar has an eclectic, some would say overly extensive selection of Belgian beer. The bartenders were… weird. Quite odd really, they were arguing in front of us, and frankly, the one guy seemed like he had a mental problem of some sort. The other one complained a lot about her boyfriend. Sort of unprofessional, but these places (Sharper Edge) seem to be a Pittsburgh staple so I guess they don’t have to worry too much about their staff. I will say that the place was clean and quite attractive on the interior. The beer selection was great if you’re into only Belgian beer. So there’s that.

Yum… I was craving a pulled pork sandwich for over a week and I finally found a place that served one and at a decent price too! I ordered it for lunch with French fries. The fries were fresh cut and crispy. The sandwich was so big I only ate half and saved half for lunch the next day. It was just as good the second day as it was the first. I can’t wait to go back for another.

«Eh.» That pretty much summarizes my visit to Sharp Edge Beer Emporium. It certainly wasn’t totally awful, but I just wasn’t super impressed, either. I actually visited during a special happy hour event, so I knew the place was likely to be busy when I arrived. I was half right: the back was full because of the event, but the front was half empty. So hey, if you need a place to go for a Tuesday happy hour, that’s a plus. I thought the set-​up and look of the place was nice enough; certainly not as nice as the downtown Sharp Edge, but it seemed clean and well-​lit, so it it still had that «nice bar» feel to it.
I unfortunately arrived a few minutes too late for their happy hour, so I stuck to a single drink and appetizer when ordering. I loved my beer cocktail — a Lambic Sangria (which, as their menu says, is «Raspberry– and orange-​infused Lillet Blanc mixed with Lindeman’s Framboise and Witterkerke Belgian Wit»). It had the right touch of beer and was also sweet, and the blend was just what I needed that night. I also ordered the pita and artichoke dip, which though not exceptional was tasty enough. I kind of wished I’d gone full out for a burger later on, but the back was so busy because of the event I was afraid of how long the wait might turn out to be.
Unfortunately, based on the service my fears may have been spot on. To be clear, I totally acknowledge that the noise and difficulties with taking care of a large group can make any server’s job harder. That said, my waitress still didn’t do a good job with me. For starters, she brought me the wrong dip, despite my efforts to try and avoid this. When she came to get my order she clearly said, «You can either get both bruschetta and artichoke dip, or you can get both bowls with artichoke dips.» Not wanting to confuse her by saying I wanted both, I clearly said, «I want the first of those options.» And… I got two artichoke dips. I didn’t bother asking for a replacement because she ran off so quickly and I was hungry, so I figured, whatever; it tasted fine. When I finally flagged her down later I asked for my check and a water. Got my check. Never ever got that water. I can accept one mistake during a busy night, but two? Especially when one of those mistakes is ignoring my request for water? That combined with the fact that it was impossible to grab her left me feeling disappointed with the service. And yes, I know events are busy, but that also raises another issue: if you expect to be busy, why not bring in an extra server for the night to make life a little easier for your staff? So no, definitely not impressed with this place’s handling of staffing and service.
I can summarize my Sharp Edge Beer Emporium experience in a couple bullet points: ok drink selection, delicious beer cocktails, tasty enough food, really unimpressive service. Granted my night wasn’t awful and I’d come back if someone asked me to join them here, but I can say with certainty that this will never be my go-​to for grabbing a beer or a bite. There’s definitely other more convenient and impressive businesses in the city where you can do that.

The Sharp Edge has a fantastic (if pricey) selection of Belgian beers. They have an excellent happy hour special which you should definitely take advantage of if you want to drink more than one beer — your wallet will thank you! Although the food is pretty decent, you really want to come here for the beer.
If you are a beer novice the bartenders and waitstaff will be more than happy to give you helpful recommendations. Personally, I’d recommend anything by Chimay, Brouwerij Van Steenberge, Abbaye Notre-​Dame de Saint-​Remy, Maredsous, or Brasserie d’Achouffe. Cheers!

With an excellent beer selection and a very convenient location, I really wanted to like this place. The service, however, more than cancelled out the excellent food and great drink selection. We came at happy hour with a group of friends. We expected the service to be fairly slow at first given that we arrived with a fairly large party, but as the night went on and people cleared out, it never really improved. Even when there were only 4 of us left and the rest of the restaurant was basically empty, it was still taking forever to place an order.
After not seeing our waiter for over 20 minutes, we just decided to go to the bar and order a drink. Of course, our waiter finally shows up when we get back and gets kind of snippy when he sees that we went an ordered on our own and accused us of taking up his table. We would have preferred to order from him if he hadn’t been standing around in the back chatting with friends. The bartenders were also a bit condescending.
Despite the service, the food was still quite good. We had the Belgian onion soup and split an order of the steamed mussels. Both were excellent. If the wait staff were up to par, we would be glad to frequent this place more often.

Love the Belgium burger! The lamb inside is fantastic. The desserts are also great. They have a great many of beer collection! Love it

Best beer selection, for sure! The Belgian beers and seasonal rotations make this place a gem. I’m a fan of meeting friends here for happy hour specials, there is always something here to please everyone. (Even my parents. That is saying a lot.) The specials are out of this world, check for the latest before you go.
The food can be mediocre and overpriced, so I recommend sticking with snacks, specials, and Belgian dishes for the best experiences if you’re here for more than just the beer.

Large beer selection that concentrates on craft beers but you will also find a decent selection of European beers that you will not normally find. The bar and booths are good places to sit at but everything else reminds me of an old diner.
Waitstaff is nice but everytime I come they usually forget something I ordered. When they get busy it takes a while to get your order in and to get refills on beers.
Food is very hit or miss. Their boneless wings are quite good, thier burgers are ok. But the two times I have strayed away from those two things I have gotten sick, and both times I was not the only one in my group.
In short come here for the beer and bites, but it may be a while getting your food if it’s busy. Happy hour is decent too

A friend of mine recently moved into Bloomfield so last Friday night we decided to give Sharp Edge a shot. We were partially drawn here by the proximity, but the real reason was the beer. Unfortunately the good beer selection was dragged down by the inattentive service, terrible ambiance, flat out bad food.
After entering we waited by the hostess stand for a few minutes without anyone noticing us, so we then decided to take a seat at the bar. We waited for another 5 – 10 minutes before anyone waited on us. We were seen, but no one waited on us. As we sat there I couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming smell of bleach and cleaning products, but was thrown by the sticky bar, stained disposable coasters, and dirty carpet.
We were eventually waited on and placed beer and food orders; both came in a reasonable amount of time. I ordered a cheese steak and received hands down the worst one I’ve ever gotten. For starters they did not use shaved steak, but deli roast beef. They compounded the problem by not heating it up, the meat was actually cold. It was then topped with peppers and mushrooms that were barely cooked (the mushrooms were at that just warm enough to be soggy stage, yum). All of this was covered with slices of cheddar cheese that at one point had been melted, but by the time it got to me had reconstituted into a yellow, greasy sheet.
The overall lack of an attempt to make a simple sandwich that was halfway decent gives me the sense that no matter what I get here, it’s going to be made and served half-​assed.